Account Wagering in California Hits the Ground Running
Early figures on account wagering from the California Horse Racing Board were released last week.
The CHRB announced that from January 30 to February 4, 2002, Californians have wagered a total of US$839,097 on horse racing through advanced deposit accounts. The average daily wagers through account wagering stands at $139, 850.
The daily average represents less than 1 percent of the total wagers placed across the state. The numbers are not broken down by wagers placed through particular systems, such as online or phone wagers, or how much was bet at any racetrack in particular.
US Census Shows Half of all Americans are Online
New data from the most recent U.S. census, released by Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, shows more than half of Americans have Internet connectivity.
By September of 2001, 54 percent of the population or 143 million people were using the Internet. Adoption rates of new users is more than 2 million per month.
The next generation of Americans is well connected, according to the data, with 75 percent of 14 to 17 year-olds and 65 percent of 10 to 13 year-olds classified as Internet users. Ninety percent or 47.4 million children between 5 and 17 use computers at home and school.
Travel Web Sites See Spike in Hits
The number of people surfing across travel Web sites increased in January to a record 94.3 million, according to ComScore Networks.
"It might be that Americans have started 2002 with renewed confidence in travel," said Dan Hess, vice president. "They may also have an appreciation for the attractive prices and convenience that abound online."
ComScore tracks the Web activity of 1.5 million people. In January, the most popular travel site was Expedia.com, with 16.1 million visitors, a 15 percent gain from December. Orbitz.com ranked second, with 11.3 million. Travelocity.com was third with 10.9 million, followed by
Travelzoo.com with 6.7 million and Priceline.com with 5.5 million.
Next-Generation Consoles Will Rely on Online Games and Broadband
A new report by Forrester research is predicting that online games will be the most successful use of next-generation consoles, despite recent hype about other possibilities for their use.
Online games are predicted to be the application that succeeds in bringing the hybrid consoles to the mainstream, over digital cameras, MP3 players and personal video recorders by 2005. Next-generation consoles are predicted to be the first non-TV devices to plug into broadband, which should be in 41 percent of connected households in Europe by 2006.
Base consoles will be the focus of sales in the next few years, but always-on broadband connectivity will be the key to the survival of the consoles and online gaming through these consoles. Other important factors to stimulating interest are better game packages, price reductions and "better-than-ever" single-player games.
One-Third of Chinese Internet Users Buy Online
According to the China Internet Network Information Center's Semi-Annual Survey Report on the Development of China's Internet, at least one-third of China's Internet population purchased online in 2001.
The most popular online purchases were made for books, music and computer products and seven percent used online auction sites. A troubling revelation from the study was that 14 percent of online purchasers reported they paid for goods that they never received.
Another concern of many of the polled Chinese Internet users was security, with over 63 percent believing their computer had been hacked in the last year.
Asians Prefer SMS Messages to Email
Newsbytes recently reported results from a study conducted by Siemens in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam that studied the mobile phone use versus email usage in those countries.
The survey showed that 60 percent of 16 to 54 year-old mobile phone owners in those countries prefer to use SMS or text messaging via their cell phone over email messaging.
Business users of SMS texting via the mobile phone were more likely to be in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam whereas users in India, Indonesia and the Philippines were more likely to use their phones for personal pursuits.